Friday, October 14, 2011

Invention idea

There are these rides that don't actually go anywhere, so instead they simulate the visual experience with a big screen or maybe spectacles, and the auditory experience with speakers or headphones, and maybe they also blow wind on you or something. In all of these cases the stimuli are really simulated, just enough to activate the various sense organs. But when it comes to simulating the movement of the ride, they usually have to actually move your seat or cart around, which kind of ruins the purity of the fake. So I was thinking that one way to fix this problem would be to have people wear some kind of thing on their head that has magnets or something in it to directly stimulate the balance organs in your inner ear, so your brain feels like it's moving left or right or up or down or whatever. Of course the helmet thing wouldn't make your butt feel like it's getting pressed into the seat or almost flying out of it, but if magnets can influence your inner ear thingies, the same laws of physics could be applied to magnetize your butt tissues. The only real practical problem, besides the probable nonexistence of the necessary laws of physics, is that you might accidentally boil the liquid inside your inner ear, which may result in lawsuits. Also, and I just now thought of this, there is the problem of maximizing elegance, since if you're sending magic waves into the head anyway, why not just go all the way and magnetize your brain and bypass the sensory organs entirely. So I guess just forget it.